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Ice chip delays Storm game for nearly two hours

by
Kristen Douglas - Campbell River Mirror

posted Mar 11, 2014 at 1:00 PM— updated Mar 12, 2014 at 9:17 AM

The Campbell River Storm's Gavin Rauser jubilantly jumps into the arms of a teammate as the Storm celebrate a 1-0 win Friday night at Rod Brind’Amour Arena in game two of its semi-final series against the Victoria Cougars.

— image credit: Kristen Douglas/The Mirror

The Campbell River Storm are down 2-1 in a semi-final series that is favouring the home team.

The Storm won a thrilling game two at home Friday evening in the dying seconds of a game that was delayed by nearly two hours because of an ice chip.

That excitement, though, was short lived after the Storm fell 4-1 to the Victoria Cougars in game three Sunday afternoon at Archie Browning Arena.

While the Storm outshot the Cougars 34-20 on Sunday, only the Storm’s Trent Johnson was able to get one by Victoria goalie Connor Beauchamp.

Victoria jumped out to an early lead, scoring 15 minutes into the game.

A scoreless second period paved the way for the Storm to get back in it but it was the Cougars’ Blake Roney who scored the game’s second goal, putting the Storm down 2-0.

Johnson made it 2-1 with just over nine minutes to go in the game but that was as close as the Storm would get as Campbell River gave up two more goals to Victoria, including an empty netter with one second left to go in the game.

The Storm have scored just two goals in its last two games but on Friday night at Rod Brind’Amour Arena one goal was enough as goalie Russell Sanderson lead his team to a 1-0 victory with the shutout.

The Storm's Braydon Horcoff was the lone goal scorer of the game but the story of the night was an incident that was completely out of the players’ control.

With 12 minutes left to go in the third, and the game still scoreless, a piece of ice roughly a foot long was dislodged in the corner next to the door where the Storm step on to the ice.

The game was delayed for more than an hour and a half after on-ice officials were unable to repair the chip and Strathcona Gardens ice makers had to go out and find the necessary coolant.

While some of the fans who filled Rod Brind’Amour Arena left during the delay, the majority hung in and were not disappointed.

The Storm’s Horcoff scored with 27 seconds left in the game to negate overtime and even longer game, which ended at 11:30 p.m. – four hours after it began.

The Storm have a chance to pull even in its best-of-seven series tonight at Rod Brind’Amour Arena.

The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Game five goes Thursday at 7 p.m. in Victoria.

If necessary, the two games will be back in Campbell River for game six at Rod Brind’Amour Arena.

Game time is at 7:30 p.m.

Game 7, if necessary, goes Sunday, March 16 at 3:30 p.m. in Victoria.

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